PC Upgrade!

Long time, no post! Oh well, I now have a good reason to post about something a bit interesting.

I upgraded my CPU from an Intel Pentium D935 3,2 ghz(2007) to an Intel Pentium E6500 2,93ghz(2009). I also bought an Arcting Cooling Accelero Pro for my Gigabyte Ati Radeon HD4850 video card. The results are astonishing.

Let me first talk about the initial configuration:

Intel Pentium D935 3,2 ghz
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 rev 3.3
4x Kingston Hyper-X 1GB DDR2-800mhz
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4850(512 MB)
Sirtec 560W

I believe I have a pretty decent rig for these days, even though it’s still on the good ol’ LGA775 socket. Everything ran smoothly, with the exception of CPU-intensive applications. Such as 3D renderings or mapping for half-life. Well, there were even games that had a significant drop in performance because of the CPU. GTA4 is a good example.

Since the budget is not a bright part when it comes to upgrading, I had to think well my next upgrade. I originally intended to save money for an i7 860 platform. I came to the conclusion this is not a viable option for me at this time, so instead I researched for a modern LGA775 CPU that is compatible with my motherboard. I found the E6500 intel processor, released in 2009. I had to upgrade my BIOS to the latest version, and that was the part that gave me emotions. A simple power fluctuation and I could kiss my mobo goodbye!

Anyway, everything was alright. I was impressed by the size of the stock cooler the E6500 has. I mean, it’s a lot smaller and light-weight than the other one. I was also impressed by how well the new GPU cooler cools it. A drop of 30 degrees celsius is something! So anyway, I’ll cut the story here and show you the results:

• the pc now consumes 83w in idle, as opposed to 120w. It turns out the old CPU was rather inefficient.

• the new CPU has an awesome increase of performance, consumes a lot less and it’s less hot( same temperatures with the other, but remember that its stock cooler isn’t as massive as the D935′s, and it doesn’t have a copper bottom(the old one had))

• SuperPI 1M calculation now takes 19,5 seconds, as opposed to 41 seconds for the old CPU

• overall system performance is increased: from a score of 5688 3Dmark06 now reports 10708 !!

• since I installed the new cooler on the video card, it sits below 40C (~38C). With the original cooler it sat at 79C, which is damn hot for idle! in Full Load it doesn’t exceeds a bit 60C( max 65C). Well, with the old cooler it was ~90C in Full Load. I have to specify that now the cooler is very quiet.

Here’s a general look to my system and the benchmarks. Everything runs at default settings( no OverClocking).

Right click on the image and select "view image" to see it at full res

 

Pictures showing the installation of the Accelero Pro cooler on the Gigabyte Ati Radeon HD4850 card:

 

 

 

Frets on Fire

I was anyway lacking any ideas of what to post, so I made a video presentation for an open-source game I like: Frets on Fire.

Youtube link

It’s a fun game to play when you’re bored, and it’s meant to be customizable: it comes with only 3 tracks for some training, but after that you can go to http://www.fretsonfiresongs.com/ and download whatever you enjoy.

Enjoy!

A totally rethought computer

Google Chrome OS

Probably until now you were wondering what’s Google Chrome OS?

It’s an operating system that focuses on browsing the internet. Here’s a presentation video of it:

Of course, you’ll probably not install this OS on your main computer where you stay all day and design stuff, or play games. But in my opinion, this is the perfect operating system for your netbook. You should try it .

/||==Chrome OS==||\

Firefox

The best browsing experience is not defined only by the sites you usually visit, but also the tool you use to navigate- the browser.

Now I’m going to give you a small tip(and you won’t regret it): Try Firefox. Use Firefox! It’s probably the best web browsing experience you can get. I’m going to prove it.

Because numbers are impressive, I’m going to prove it that way first!

Stop! You were trying to say firefox is the most used browser and from this graph ….

Wait! I’ll get there in a second. According to StatCounter GlobalStats, Internet Explorer is the most used browser in the world, and on the second place comes Firefox. But think there for a moment. It comes along with Windows, which in turn is the most used OS in the world. Most people won’t bother installing another browser because they just don’t care- they are not users who spend a lot of their time on the internet. Even if it’s like that, probably they’re beginners and they will soon start to realize they want a better browsing experience. Things make some sense now, right?

So yes, in the world of intermediate and advanced users, Mozilla Firefox is the most used web browser.

But why?

On this page at mozilla you can see a comparison between different versions of Firefox. The latest one, Firefox 3.6 has a JavaScript performance of 995 ms! (the fastest yet). Of course, in this domain Firefox is still in the 2nd place. Yes everyone, it’s about Google Chrome. But that browser has a specific category of users who really prefer these 2 defining words: speed and minimalistic. It doesn’t offer what Firefox offers though. I used to make use of Internet Explorer as a secondary browser in the past( while using Firefox as the main one, with similar sessions each day). But I uninstalled it and installed Chrome instead. But probably 80% of my browsing time is spent in Firefox .

And now I’m getting to the main point:

When you first install Firefox, it’s almost like any other browser. But you like customizing right? That’s not a problem because you can choose from a truckload of themes and thousands of  “Personas”(which instantly change the look of your browser) to help change the look and feel of your browsing experience.

So probably you’re whining about not having features you saw at other browsers. Don’t cry, Firefox offer even more than that: you can choose from a big variety of addons to personalize your browser. Firefox was designed to be a modular software that doesn’t push down your throat a ton of features you would probably not use. You choose what features you want and install them! And the awesome part is that Firefox keeps tracking these addons for updates and it will announce you if one of your plugins needs an update.

And before I forget, Firefox is an open-source software with a thriving community that constantly works at making this browser a better piece of software.

Firefox: Fun and Safe browsing experience!

Bun venit pe blogul meu !

Salut , imi pare bine sa vad ca am vizitatori deja . Blogul e in “constructie” . Adica trebuie sa-l finisez , sa-l fac mai “custom” .

Nu pot sa spun exact pe ce teme se vor axa articolele mele . E greu de spus ….  Dar hai sa vedem pasiunile mele mai intai ca sa va faceti o idee :

• Natura si Spatiul ( nu prea le am cu cunostintele dar imi place sa citesc despre ele )

• Stiinta ( pot sa categorisesc putin )

1. Electricitate
2. Calculatorul ( lol , ceva normal )
3. Aproape tot ? =))

• Imi place mappingul de half-life 1 dar in ultima vreme am lasat-o mai moale din cauza ca mi-am luat o placa video Ati si am probleme cu hammer editorul
• [EDIT 27 septembrie 2009] M-am cam reprofilat pe Source mapping (hl2 )
  
• Jocurile ( cui nu-i plac ? …. )
• ETC …..

Deci articolele mele se vor avea teme de gen DIY ( sub forma de tutoriale ) si “prostiile” care le fac eu …. umm “experiente” cum imi place sa le numesc